“I miss you too. I miss you more then anything and if that's what you want to do then I'm not going to convince you to change your mind. This is something that we both have wanted.” Brandi couldn't wait to spend every day with him like they use to do.
“Good, then its settled. I will talk to the Dean when I back to school and see what he can do for me. There has to be something he can do for me. Put in a good word and ship me to Michigan.” Mike told her eagerly.
“We could get an apartment off campus and live together. Or maybe we could live with my aunt. She knows all about you and I'm sure she wouldn't mind letting us stay with her until we get on our feet.” Brandi told him quickly, making plans already.
“First let me talk to the Dean and see what he says. I will call you the second I know anything.” He laughed at her. One of the reasons he had fallen in love with her was because she was spontaneous and made choices on a whim. Somehow everything always turned out just the way she wanted it to.
“Alright. Give me the word and I will talk to her after I hear from you.” Brandi laughed with him and was returning back to the old Brandi. Pushing the old man and Amanda out of her mind for a little while.
About forty-five minutes after Mike found her they were seeing the sign Myers Camp up ahead. It was almost dusk by the time they had seen the sign covered by tree branches. They would have missed the sign if they had been driving.
“Wow looks like someone really doesn't want anyone going in there.” Brandi muttered when she saw the sign. It gave her the creeps. Almost like someone had covered it on purpose as a silent warning to keep out.
“Yeah we drove by it in the car. Had to turn around and look for it. The sign is hidden well isn't it?” Mike grinned at her. Seeing that scared look come across her face again as they stood in the front of the sign and looked down a long dirt road.
“How far down is the camp?” She asked, trying to move her feet but as if her feet had a mind of their own they wouldn't budge.
“I don't know. It didn't take that long in the car. Come on, Jen and Maverick are waiting for us.” Mike pulled her along forcing her feet to move before she fell to her knees.
“We have no flash light and its almost dark.” Brandi had never liked the dark even when she was a child she had been scared of the dark and it had followed her into her young adult years.
“There's nothing to be afraid of. We have flashlights in Jen's car. Besides the sooner we get there the sooner we can start having fun.” Mike winked at her.
Beginning their walk down the dirt path Brandi looked over her shoulder and across the street. She saw as the sun began turning orange and was falling down behind the trees. Any other time she would have thought about how beautiful it looked and she would have stopped to watch the sun go down. Thinking twice because of the old man she looked back to what was in front of her and prayed hard that everything was going to be alright.
“You worry too much Brandi. Everything's going to be fine. Wait and see.” Mike promised her in a soft voice.
“I hope you're right.” Brandi moaned as they began walking faster down the dirt road. Woods on either side of them.
Brandi didn't look to see what might be in the woods watching them. She was afraid if she looked and heard one twig snap she would let go of Mike's hand and run like the devil was chasing her. Run to where she didn't know. Running to get help would be useless. No one seemed to ever take the road she had traveled all day. By the time she found help something bad would happen.
Brandi closed her eyes and squeezed them shut for a split second shaking her head back and forth trying to get the bad thoughts out of her head.
“What are you doing? You're almost tripping yourself up.” Mike laughed at her. Only being able to see the shadow of her body as they continued further down the dirt road.
“Sorry I can't see where I'm going.” She muttered.
“We're almost there.” Mike told her softly as they continued walking faster down the road. Mike knew that she would feel better once she saw Jen. He knew he couldn't be selfish about Brandi's time when she hadn't even spent any time with Jen who was her best friend.
“There's the car.” Mike pointed out with a grin on his face when it came into view.
Brandi looked up at the sky and saw that the stars were just starting to come out when they reached the car.
“Where are they?” Brandi asked him when they passed the car and saw a small fire burning a few feet away.
Mike saw Maverick's beer bottle on the hood of the car. Grabbing it he noticed it was still almost full.
“I don't know.” Mike whispered to her. It wasn't like Maverick to leave an open beer full for very long. He had left Maverick sitting on the hood and Jen was sitting inside the car with the music cranked. The car door was still open.
“Well they left the fire going.” Brandi told him as they walked closer to the fire.
Mike looked back at the car wondering where they might have taken off too. Brandi didn't notice that he had stopped walking as she looked into the fire that was dying down.
“Maybe they went into the small cabin over there.” Brandi called to him seeing a light on as she looked around and spotted the cabin behind her.
“Maybe.” Mike cleared his throat and hoped he was using a normal tone of voice so that Brandi wouldn't catch the worry in his voice.
“Lets go check it out.” She told him lightly waiting for him to walk towards her. She wasn't going to walk up to the cabin by herself.
“Alright. I mean they couldn't have gone too far. At least not on foot.” Mike told her in a calm voice. Not sure if he was trying to convince her or himself at the moment.
Mike walked ahead of Brandi onto the small porch and looked around. Both of them quiet. The only thing Mike could hear was Brandi's soft breathing behind him. He heard nothing coming from the woods.
“Strange.” Mike murmured to himself.
“What?” Brandi asked him.
“Nothing.” He told her quickly, thinking he had muttered under his breath enough so that Brandi wouldn't hear him.
“No what?” She asked him determined to find out what he was thinking.
“I don't hear anything. Nothing coming from the woods.” He groaned, not admitting that she had been right but it just felt strange to him.
“See. I say we should get out of here. Obviously Jen and Maverick aren't here.” Brandi stomped her feet on the porch.
“Calm down. Lets go in and see if they are in here.” Mike told her lightly as he tried the doorknob. Turning the knob and pushing the door open. For some reason he thought it would be locked up tight.
Taking one more look around Brandi didn't see anything. The weird feeling coming over her again. The same feeling she had when she saw the crow.
Walking into the cabin behind Mike she almost bumped right into him when she closed the door behind her.
Looking over Mike's shoulder she saw a small table with pictures on it. She covered her mouth when she saw that the pictures where of Jen and Maverick.
“What the hell is all this?” She asked in a whispered voice.
“I don't know. We didn't bring any camera's. And even if we had who would be the one taking the picture of them laughing and talking by the fire?” Mike asked her. None of it made sense to him.
“I told you that it wasn't a good idea to come back here. I tried explaining it to you.” Brandi was beginning to get upset with him.
“We had to come back here Brandi. What kind of friends are we if we didn't?” He asked her. Keeping his eyes on the pictures.
“Look, there's a picture of you too.” Brandi moved away from him and went around the table to look at all the pictures that were splayed out.
Brandi picked up a picture that had all three of them in it. They were standing by the car and looking down at it.
“That's when we found out we had a flat tire. Not just one but two.” Mike answered quickly when she showed him the picture.
&nb
sp; Maverick was bent down to look at the front tire. The sun shining off his black hair. His white shirt was soaked with sweat. Jen was leaning against the back of the car. Her blonde hair in a ponytail she was wearing dark sunglasses to keep the sun out of her eyes. Brandi remembered that Jen's eyes were always too sensitive when it came to the sun. Jen was wearing a light blue bikini top and a pair of cut off jeans with white tennis shoes and no socks. On her left hand, her ring finger she had an engagement ring on.
“When did they get engaged?” Brandi asked, taking a closer look at the picture.
“This summer. The three of us went out to dinner and he popped the question.” Mike was surprised that she didn't know that Jen and Maverick were engaged.
“Where was I?” Brandi asked him with a sad look in her eyes.
“I think you were out with family yourself. I'm pretty sure you were spending time with your dad.” Mike thought back for a moment.
Mike was standing on the other side of the car. Brandi could tell that he was upset about the flat tires. If she hadn't known they had flat tires she would think that he was upset about something. It showed when she looked into his face.
“Mike, something isn't right here. Something happened to them I just know it.” Brandi had a flash back of the newspaper clippings at the store. Thinking that the old man would shake his head slowly and have a sad look on his face when the news came in that the four of them had gone missing. Thinking it was a shame that she hadn't listened to him.
“We don't know that for sure. Stop Brandi.” Mike warned her. Taking a few pictures off the table and shoving them into his pocket.
Brandi shook her head and sighed heavily knowing that she couldn't get through to him at that moment in time. He would figure it out for himself if he hadn't already and was just in denial.
“What are you looking for?” She asked him when she saw him going through cupboards by the small sink the back of the cabin if you wanted to call it a cabin at all.
It was just one small room that they had entered. No doorways to any other rooms. There was a wall and a window in the back a small stove and a small sink with no counter space. A mini fridge was laying on the floor.
“I don't know yet. I will let you know when I find it though.” Mike looked at her and grinned.
Brandi took a few more pictures of their friends and did the same thing that Mike had done shoving them into her back pocket. She wanted a cigarette badly.
Brandi looked at the mini fridge hoping to find something cold to drink. Her waters were warm in her back pack that she still had on her back.
Going over to the fridge she knelt down and opened it. What she saw shocked her. Covering her mouth to keep herself from screaming she slammed the mini fridge door quickly.
“What's the matter Brandi?” Mike asked her when he took a butcher knife out of the cupboard that he found and handed it to her to put in her back pack.
“Look....Just look.” She whispered to him, her face turning pale white. Mike looked at her, worried that she was going to pass out.
Mike looked at the mini fridge, kneeling down like Brandi had just moments before he looked at Brandi and then back at the mini fridge. Putting his hand on the door he opened it slowly. When he opened the fridge all the way he saw why Brandi had moved away from the fridge so quickly.
Inside the fridge was a finger. One finger and they both knew who it belonged to. A diamond ring on the finger.
“We need to get out of here now!” Mike hollered at her. Leaving the finger where it was and slamming the door getting on his feet.
“Don't just leave it there Mike. God.” Brandi muttered as she went to the mini fridge and took the finger that belonged to Jen. Taking her bag off her shoulders and putting it into a small zip up pocket.
“Lets go Brandi!” Mike hollered at her again as he made his way to the front door, holding it open for her and letting her go out first.
“I told you we shouldn't have come here. I told you what that old man said.” She hissed at him as she ran outside and they ran towards the dirt road trying to leave.
They heard tires on the dirt road and Mike pushed Brandi into the woods. Following quickly behind her. A small, white car drove on towards the cabin.
“I don't think they saw us.” Mike whispered to her.
“I hope not.” Brandi whispered back to her.
Mike began walking through the woods towards the cabin so that he wouldn't be seen. Brandi whispered to him time and again. He wasn't listening or he didn't hear her.
Brandi followed him quietly through the woods. Glad that it wasn't fall yet so that no noise could be made by dry leaves as she walked.
“We need to go.” She whispered to him when she was right behind him.
“We will. I want to see who this person is.” Mike muttered. He was scared for Jen and Maverick. Trying to keep the horrible thoughts out of his mind. Knowing that if Jen was still alive she was in some pain and bleeding badly.
“We should go get help Mike. The longer we stand out here the longer its going to take us to come back with someone.” Brandi pointed out to him.
“How are we going to get help? There's no one out here for miles.” Mike muttered as he drew closer to the cabin at the line where he was going to step out of the woods and peer into the window on the back side of the cabin.
“I have my cell.” She remembered that she had it fully charged in her bag and she hadn't used it at all.
“I bet that it has no reception.” Mike pointed out to her.
Brandi was going to reach for it when she heard a car door open and slam shut. They couldn't see who it was. As the person opened the back door of the car they stopped and listened for a moment, trying to hear for anything.
After about thirty seconds they pulled someone out of the back seat and shoved them forward.
“Help me! Please someone help me!” A girls voice cried out loud. Crying and begging for someone to help her.
“That's Jen.” Brandi almost shouted out. She knew her best friends voice anywhere.
“Shut up. You shut up!” The person said to her.
A male's voice. Whoever had her was a man. Brandi rolled her eyes of course it would be a man.
“Be quiet.” Mike whispered to her.
They both saw that Jen had her hands tied behind her back and a blind fold over her eyes. She hadn't changed out of the clothing she had been wearing in the pictures.
They watched as the man and Jen moved towards the cabin. Mike was glad that he had shut the door behind them as if no one had been there. The man wouldn't know that anyone had been there until he saw pictures missing and Jen's finger from the mini fridge.
“Come on Mike, we have to go. We will come back for Jen. There's nothing we can do. For once just listen to me.” Brandi begged him quietly.
“Alright. Alright, we will do it your way this time. Lets go out to the road and see if you have reception out there.” Mike thought for a few minutes if she even had one bar they could get the police out there and hopefully save Jen if it wasn't too late.
Both of them turning away from the cabin and running as fast as they could to get to the road and hopefully find some help Brandi tripped and fell on her face. Feeling a stick jab into the side of her cheek.
“Are you okay?” Mike asked, trying to help her up so they could continue running.
“I'm fine. I'm...........” Brandi stayed where she was. Her face turned as she looked in horror at the tree a few feet away from her.
Mike got down on his knees and tried once again to help her up when she pointed her finger at the tree she was staring at.
Mike looked up and saw that something was tied to a tree. Forgetting about Brandi who was slowly getting up off the ground and looked at the tree closer as he reconized who it was.
“He's dead. That fucker killed him.” Mike groaned, keeping his voice down as he looked into Maverick's eyes.
His eyes were starting to glaze over, his body wrapped aroun
d a tree by a thick rope and knotted tightly to the front of the tree.
“Oh my god Mike.” Brandi covered her mouth to keep herself from screaming. Feeling as if she was going to throw up.
Maverick had a knife driven into his chest, blood spreading across his white shirt. His black hair was wet from sweat when Mike touched his head. Looking closer at his friend Mike noticed that his eyes had been dung out of his eyes. Knowing he would never be able to find Maverick's eyes in the dark he stepped back from his friends body.
“He must have died within the last hour or so. His hair is wet with sweat, like he was running for his life. We could have passed him and he could have still been alive as we were walking down to the cabin. With the knife stabbed into his chest I am sure he couldn't scream out for help.” Mike whispered as he tried to keep his voice controlled, feeling tears welling up in his eyes as he turned his head.
“We're next Mike. If we don't get out of here we are next.” Brandi began crying, keeping her eyes on Maverick.
“What I want to know is why.” Mike told her angrily looking at her as if she knew the answer.
“I don't know.” Brandi shook her head. She wished that she could hold Mike and comfort him but now wasn't the time.
Mike walked away from the tree, heading closer to the road. Praying that by some miracle that Jen wasn't in too much pain and if she died that her death wasn't filled with torture.
“We aren't next Brandi. If we don't get out of here and get help Jen is next.” Mike muttered.
Brandi began running again with Mike right behind her. Seeing the line where the tar met the dirt.
Brandi took her bag off her shoulders and dug out her cell phone. Feeling around for it in the dark there weren't any street lights that worked. She had no light to go by.
“Come on Brandi hurry.” Mike told her, looking behind them as if they were being chased.
“I'm trying.” She grunted as she grabbed her cell phone and turned it on. Waiting impatiently for it to turn on she quickly found out that they had no reception to call out.
Murder Thriller: Heart Of A Serial Killer (Murder, Serial Killer Thrillers, Psychological Thrillers, Gothic, Thriller & Suspense Crime, Mystery, Hard-Boiled Book 1) Page 2
